


The Weight of a Mistake

by TheVoidInMyHead



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade, World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Physical Abuse, Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-07 03:37:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18612334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVoidInMyHead/pseuds/TheVoidInMyHead
Summary: Favors, as Ana would come to learn quite painfully, were quite a big deal in kindred society. And mistakes, were even more so.





	The Weight of a Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> We will see if I add more chapters to this. For now, this will remain a short story.
> 
> What, well what can I do  
> I hate this city but I stay cause of you  
> Why, well why can’t I change  
> I wanna move on but I’m just too afraid  
> MARINA - Too afraid

“Ana,” the young man in the blue t-shirt on the couch spoke with a warning in his voice as she put on her jeans again.

The man’s living room was dimly lit, almost dark enough to hide the bruises and the black eye the young woman had earned on her visit. She had the body of a model and despite being hurt and disheveled at the moment she was still very pretty. Her eyes stared back at the man as she lifted her head to look at him.

“Not a peep to your employer, or I will make sure your next visit will not be as pleasant,” he threatened.

Ana nodded and the man smirked. “Good.” She zipped her jeans shut and closed the button, then grabbed her tank top from the nearby chair. “Now see to it that you get out.”

She heard the impatience in his tone and hurriedly slipped into the rest of her clothing. At the door she turned back to him. He had lit a cigarette.

“What?!” he snapped.

“I hope you rot in hell when you die,” she spat with a slight Russian accent.

The man laughed at her. “If I die.” He got up and crossed the distance between them. He was a head taller than Ana. He looked down at her. “You know someone will have to destroy me or my regent for that to happen.”

“You’re disgusting,” she hissed.

He grasped her chin, smiled and purred, “Oh Ana, dear. You’re not any better, selling yourself like that for guys like me.”

“You’re wrong. I’m only doing it to survive,” she said confidently.

The man roughly pressed his lips onto hers and kissed her. “And I am helping you survive. Paying you instead of just taking what I want from you.”

“Fine, if it lets you sleep at night.”

Ana didn’t speak the words that were desperately trying to escape her lips and get her a second black eye to match the first one. Instead she just looked back at him with hatred burning in her eyes.

“Say it, so I have an excuse to hit you again,” he growled. The smile on his lips grew wider in sharp contrast.

Ana shook he head, turned and headed out the door. “Good night.”

When she finally was outside of the apartment complex, she sighed heavily. She hated that bastard of a ghoul. Slowly she made her way home. Ascending the stairs to the 4th floor, she entered her rather small apartment. The first thing she did, was head to the bathroom.

“You look like shit,” she told her reflection. It was really bad. The bruises didn’t concentrate only on her face. She had them on her neck where he had choked her as well. There were more hidden by her clothes. “Guess I’ll put some ice on that black eye to help bring the swelling down.”

She did just that. The remainder of the evening, she spent watching TV and then headed to bed. Tomorrow she was doing another night shift. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

Ana had slept through the day and when she awoke in the late afternoon she felt incredibly sore. Not even the coffee helped to wake her up. After getting dressed, she took a cab to the brothel she worked at. She hoped some of her friends were on shift with her.

“Ana, are you alright?” the bouncer at the door asked her concerned when she approached.

“I am, thank you. Got into another fight with some asshole who tried to hit on my sister,” she lied.

The bouncer sighed. “You should really try to keep your temper in check before you end up with a knife in your chest.”

She laughed. “I’ll be fine.” With that she entered.

They weren’t open yet, so the music was turned down and the red lights off. She entered the area with the poles for the pole dancers. Just as she had expected, her boss was there with one of the girls. It was Nadia. Ana smiled. Nadia was one of her friends.

“Good evening, George.”

He turned to her. George was a thin, but not scrawny man with a lot of beautiful tattoos. He took pride in his looks, that much was clear. “Got into another fight?” he sneered. “You better cover all of that ugliness up, or you can take your ass straight back home. I’m not gonna let you expose yourself to our clientele looking like this.”

“Of course. I will.”

His piercing eyes lingered on her for a moment longer before he excused himself and went to the bar.

“Hi,” Nadia greeted Ana.

“Hi.” She hugged her and together they went to the dressing room. Ana sat down and started covering up her bruises with makeup.

“You should say something, Ana. I know George can be an asshole sometimes, but if he knew he would make sure to get the guy who did this to you.” Nadia was the only one who knew, not who did it, but that Ana wasn’t actually getting into fights, like she told everyone else.

Ana shook her head. She knew better. Nadia had no idea that George was kindred and that if he ever found out, he would dispose of her and Nadia if word got through to him. “Promise me you won’t go off and tell him. It would make everything worse.”

“I promise. But please consider getting help.”

“I’ll think about it.” She wouldn’t. Her mind was already made up.

Behind them, the door to the dressing room opened. “Nadia, would you wait outside? I need to speak to Ana in private.” George hadn’t even bothered knocking, as always.

As Nadia left, Ana’s heartbeat picked up. What was that about? Had he actually overheard their conversation?

He pulled another chair close and had a seat. He inspected her face and scowled disapprovingly. “That won’t do. These are too severe to cover up conveniently. You’ll end up looking like a plastic doll.”

“Well George, there’s nothing else I can do about this now,” she replied aggravated. “I have no blood to spare for healing at the moment.”

“Then maybe you should take care that you ration my blood a bit better. I’m tempted to order you to heal the mess on your face to burn through the rest of it and watch you begging me to give you more.”

Ana’s heart stopped beating for a second. “Please don’t.”

He sighed. “If you ever come back here looking like this there will be consequences. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yes.” She was relieved he didn’t actually make her heal. “Thank you. I’m sorry I am causing you trouble.”

The smile he gave her was cold and so wide it exposed his fangs. “Finish covering up. You’re working the bar with me tonight.”

Ana almost smirked. She liked handing out drinks.

George stood up and on his way out reminded her, “You’re getting off easy. Consider yourself extremely lucky.”

Nadia didn’t come back and Ana finished doing her face in silence. Out at the bar it was like the conversation in private had never happened. It was always like this. George and Ana talked about this and that, while serving the customers. Nadia and some other girls performed their best pole dances and Ana noted that Nadia had improved quite a lot. She pointed it out to George and asked, “Have you been training her?”

He smiled. “Yes. Glad you noticed.”

“Well, of course. I always pay attention even if it doesn’t seem like it most of the time.”

He rolled his eyes and gave out another drink to a young woman with pink hair and glasses.

The woman took a seat at the bar, closer to Ana. “Hey.”

Ana raised an eyebrow. “Hi.”

“One of my friends recently came here and had an appointment with you. She’s out of town now, but she wanted me to give this to you as a thank you.” She pulled out an envelope and handed it to her. “It’s a gift card for that store you said you loved.”

“Thank you. But who’s your friend, I have so many customers, men and women both.”

The woman looked quite surprised at that. “Oh. Tatjana Brown.”

She remembered her. “So she got the job?”

“Yes, that’s why she’s out of town.”

“Great, tell her I’m so happy for her when you talk to her again. What’s your name?”

“Janina. Pleased to meet you.”

Ana chuckled. “Likewise.”

They talked some more and after finishing her drink Janina watched the pole dancers and eventually left again. Outside the club a man in a blue t-shirt was waiting for her.

“She’s working the bar with her boss. She took the envelope without even thinking twice about it.” She extended her hand demandingly.

“Well done.” He pulled four 50 dollar bills from the pocket of his jeans and handed them over. “Now to the fun part.” His expression became vicious and Janina looked at him excitedly.

“This will be glorious,” she giggled. “We should work together more often! Tatjana did some solid ground work, don’t you think? She remembered her immediately.”

He agreed.

The rest of Ana’s shift went smoothly and at 4 in the morning, she went home.

Something was horribly wrong. She awoke shaking in the middle of the day and she felt weak. Cold sweat was running down her forehead and her mind started racing. She couldn’t feel George in her veins anymore. She couldn’t feel him! He was gone! She got up and nearly fell over. Her breaths came ragged and for a second she wondered if she was hyperventilating. She needed to go check on George. She had to make sure she hadn’t just accidentally burned the last dose of his blood. As fast as she could, she got dressed, brushed her hair got her things and headed straight for the brothel, which doubled as his haven.

The cab ride felt excruciatingly long and the nearer she came, the worse she felt.

With her hand shaking so badly she barely managed to put the key in the lock, she opened the front door and entered.

“No, no, no.” There was a trail of blood in the hallway, leading to the stage and the bar. She followed it and what awaited her in the middle of the room made her stomach turn.

Nadia had a knife in her head and stab wounds all over her body. Her clothes were soaked in blood and it was pooling underneath her. She got closer. Attached to the handle of the knife protruding from her head was a piece of paper. The message read: _Shouldn’t have told her. Snitches be dead. He knows. Now I’m taking_ **_everything_ ** _from you!_

Through a veil of tears, she took in her dead friend again. It had been a mistake to tell her. She should have known! Her death, her blood was on her hands now. She had caused the death of an innocent. If she hadn’t known. If she had just kept her mouth shut, Nadia would still be alive! She hated herself. She kept crying until she had no more tears left. Then she made her way up the stairs to George’s room, praying that she would find him there, sleeping.

She flung the door open and was greeted by a pile of ash and another note.

_Feeling empty?_

She did. And her head was spinning.

_If you haven’t opened the envelope you received yesterday yet, you should do so now._

She had forgotten about it. She pulled it from her purse and opened it. It did hold a gift card for real, as well as a letter from Tatjana. The handwriting was different and she recognized her signature.

_Ana, I’m sorry. I owed a favor to someone really high up on the food chain. Favors in kindred society are kind of a big deal. I hope you can forgive me for telling them where you work. Whatever happens, I hope you make it through all this alive. I had a great time with you. Tatjana._

So she’d been played. And she had fucked up on top of that. Paranoia hit her like a wrecking ball.

What was she supposed to do now? Should she call the police and at least inform them she had found Nadia? But they would turn over the entire place and eventually find the pile of ashes that used to be George. She couldn’t risk a Masquerade breach. This whole situation was messed up.

She went back downstairs, turning things over in her head again and again. She wasn’t worried about aging. She had only been a ghoul for 3 years, but even the thought of not having vitae in her system anymore freaked her out. For now she had bigger problems. The murder.

“You really shouldn’t leave the door unlocked with _that_ in here.”

Crouched beside Nadia’s corpse was the man in the blue t-shirt. Ana had never learned his name. She glared at him as he stood up and walked over to her.

“I warned you. You didn’t listen. Now they’re both dead,” he breathed. “The only reason you’re still walking is because you didn’t go to your regent directly, and this stupid thing,” he nodded at the body on the floor. “Didn’t heed _your_ warning to keep quiet. Karma’s a bitch like that.”

Ana couldn’t even speak. The hatred in her body was paralyzing her. Hatred for him and herself.

“Now, you will help me clean up this mess. My car is parked in the back. My regent will make sure this whole thing is swept under the rug, but you will not be coming back here any time soon. You’re stuck with me now.”

And this was when she realized, she had no fucking choice in the matter if she didn’t want to end up behind bars, or worse.

“I hate you from the bottom of my heart,” she spat at him.

He _smiled_ at her as if it was the sweetest thing he’d ever heard. “Ana, sweetie. You will learn to love me in time.”

“Fuck you.”

“Mind your tongue or I will leave you with all of this,” he threatened. “And you know what that would mean for you…”

She knew. So she kept her mouth shut.

The man turned and grabbed a body bag that Ana had failed to notice from one of the cushioned chairs. “Get a bucket with water and a mop to clean the floor. I’ll take care of your friend here.”

She complied, and while he was carrying the body out as if it weighted nothing and stored it in the trunk of his car, she mopped the pool of blood up. When he came back, she asked, “What about George? The pile of ashes upstairs?”

“Someone else is coming to take care of that. I was only tasked with making sure your friend disappears.”

“Did you kill her?” she wanted to know, voice dripping venom. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.

“I didn’t. Your decision to tell her about me did. You might as well have wielded the knife yourself and rammed it into her head,” he spoke, pleased with himself. “I’m only the executioner here. You’re the one who sentenced her to death.”

She knew that in a way, he was right and she despised him for it.

“So the three of you work together? All for your regent?” despite all of this, she was curious. She kept mopping. He had sat down and was watching her clean up.

“No. Tatjana was in town on two different assignments. She works for someone up north. Janina lives one state over. Her regent is a business associate and he sent her to help, for a fee.”

She wondered why he was so forthcoming with the information. So all of them were ghouls. Except for her now.

The man sighed in frustration. “Never cleaned up blood before, have you? Let me, this is taking too long.” He took the mop from her. “Take a seat. Enjoy the show.”

His change in behavior confused her.

He laughed when he noted the look on her face. “I can be nice, most of the time I just don’t bother.”

“You’re still an awful person, no matter how nice you can act.”

He raised an eyebrow at that. “I know. I know I am a murderer. And I am under no delusion that I am a nice guy. And you should respect that.”

She would never admit that she actually did. He wasn’t trying to justify his horrible actions with some bullshit explanation.

Within less than ten minutes the floor looked cleaner than it had ever before. He emptied out the blood stained water in a drain and put the bucket and the mop in the trunk with Nadia. Ana locked all the doors and then got in the car with him. “Where are we taking her? Are we burying her in a nearby forest?”

“We’re taking her to the morgue in the clinic,” he replied drily.

“What?!”

“My regent owns almost every business in the city. Nobody will ask questions. People get killed all the time.”

Ana could not believe her ears how much influence this one kindred actually had. “How old are you?”

“32,” he grinned, started the car and pulled out onto the main street. “I know you’re 31. You have been for 3 years.”

How much information did he actually have on her?

“Well, how long have you been 32 then?”

“A very long time,” he answered and she knew he wouldn’t say any more.

“What’s your name?”

“I’ve had a lot of names. Currently it’s Gabriel.” He smirked. “You’re quite interested aren’t you? That’s good.”

She didn’t reply. She turned away and watched the streets pass as they drove to the clinic.

“If you’d lived as long as me, you’d understand that you become numb to death. And that in the world of kindred almost everyone is selfish. It’s like you said, we do what we have to to survive,” Gabriel said and she wasn’t quite sure if he was talking to her or to himself.

“You killed my friend and my regent and with that you took my life away.”

“Your friend was collateral damage. You don’t know who your regent really was. He was a pain in the ass. A thorn in my regent’s side. This whole thing would have blown up with or without you present anyway. All it did was blow up earlier than expected. You should be glad you’re still breathing,” he said quite coolly. “You’re so young, you haven’t fully grasped what you’d agreed to when you took the first sip of blood, and I doubt he explained it all to you.”

She had thought she’d known enough, but apparently she hadn’t and now she was paying for her mistakes in full. “What will happen to me now? You said I’m stuck with you.”

“Yes. I will bring you to my regent. You’ll get your blood from her and you will work at her club. We can’t let you leave, since you know too much.”

“What if she doesn’t want me as her ghoul?” she questioned, sounding scared.

There was no emotion in his voice when he answered, “Then you die.”

“Please, can you vouch for me? I’m sure she’d listen to you. I’ll do whatever you want for you. Please!” she begged. “I don’t want to die.”

“I think you got the wrong address. You’re pleading with a murderer,” he spoke amused. His eyes left the road for a moment and there was something dark in them when he looked at her. “Be careful what you promise, sweetheart. Don’t promise anything that you don’t mean.”

“I’d rather live my life in misery than have it end too soon,” she spoke and he knew she meant it.

“Alright. I will vouch for you should she want to get rid of you. And if I do, you will do _whatever_ I want.”

“Deal.”

Gabriel shook his head in disbelief. Soon, he pulled into a side street. They had arrived at the clinic.

“Come, grab the bucket and mop.”

They got out of the car and to Ana, this seemed surreal. Him carrying the corpse of her friend to the morgue in broad daylight without a care in the world. Downstairs, he put her on a slab and got her out of the body bag to remove her clothes. Ana put bucket and mop in a corner and watched silently. No one else was here currently. He got a toe tag and labelled it. Ana got closer to see what he wrote.

_Nadia Senkova, 29 yrs old, no police involvement. JV will take care of matters._

“JV the initials of your regent?”

“They are.” He handed her Nadia’s tattered shirt, socks, shoes, underwear and jeans. “There’s a trash bin over there. I checked her pockets, she had nothing on her.”

She threw the bloodied clothes away and when she turned again. Gabriel had secured the toe tag and was in the process of storing Nadia’s body in a cold chamber. With a metallic thud it closed, sealing her inside.

“That’s it. We’re done here.” His next sentence held a mischievous undertone. “After you.”

Ana was on her way out when she felt his hand squeeze her butt and it took her all her willpower not to spin around and slap him. She ignored it and kept walking to his car.

“Anticlimactic.” Gabriel sounded disappointed. When she still didn’t acknowledge that he was there his voice dropped. “Do not ignore me. Turn around, right now.”

She did and his eyes were dark with anger. “A word of advice. Ignoring me is the worst mistake you could ever make. This is your first and final warning.”

He was frightening her. He looked like he’d snap any second and break her neck.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t ignore you again,” she apologized quickly.

He let out a long breath. “Very well. Get back in the car.”

They drove for about half an hour before Ana wanted to know where they were going. It clearly wasn’t his apartment, and sundown was still a while off.

“My regent is on a business trip. We’ll arrive after sunset.”

“Guess then I’ll get some sleep.” Ana was exhausted. She wished she could just forget all of this. She didn’t even have the energy to grieve anymore.

“Good night,” Gabriel said indifferently.

She slept the whole ride. She felt a hand stroke her hair surprisingly gentle and without wanting to, she let out a pleased sigh.

“Wakey, wakey,” Gabriel chuckled, his face less than an inch from hers. He watched her eyes widen when she opened them. She froze and he was sure she had stopped breathing for a moment. His grin was wide enough to expose teeth. “Sleep well?”

Ana audibly swallowed. “I did.” It was almost a whisper.

He waited for something else. She didn’t know what.

“Thank you,” he spoke calmly.

“Thank you,” Ana echoed.

His hand ran from her head to the back of her neck. “Kiss me.”

She did without giving a reply. Because she couldn’t reply. He had compelled her to kiss him and for the moment, she was obeying mindlessly. When she had control over her actions again, she looked slightly confused before the confusion turned into realization and then horror.

“Well, I guess I won’t be doing that again any time soon. That lacked a soul behind it,” he commented.

“You took my will away.” Her voice nearly broke.

“Don’t worry, I can’t make you do anything that would harm you or another. My regent however, could.”

That wasn’t reassuring. He still hadn’t leaned back. He was running his hand into her hair again.

She stiffened.

“Relax. I have no intention of hurting you right now,” he told her and she almost didn’t recognize his voice. It was warm. It had lost all the edge to it too. “After tonight, you will either be part of this family…”

“Or I will be dead,” she finished and forced the tension out of her muscles.

“Would be such a waste though. I’ll do my best to keep you alive.”

“Thanks.” She felt his hand move again. He began brushing through her hair with his fingers. And to her own surprise, she wasn’t repulsed, when she knew she should have been, deep down.

“Ready?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

He pulled back. “Let’s go then.”

The complex they headed for was a generic looking office building. They took the elevator to the 7th floor and Gabriel knocked on the door.

“Enter.”

The kindred was sitting behind a wooden desk, a pile of papers on it, next to her laptop. She seemed to have been turned in her late thirties. She wore a white blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. “Hello, Gabriel. To what do I owe the surprise visit?”

Ana nearly startled at her voice. It was soft and melodic and starkly contrasted her appearance.

“Good evening, Miss Valenzia.” He pointed at Ana. “This is the reason I’m here. Every other matter is resolved. You told me to handle the situation as I saw fit and I’ve come to the conclusion that this one can be useful still. Especially at your club.”

She looked her over and nodded. “Do you take full responsibility for her?”

“Of course.”

She looked up at him. “Very well.” She beckoned Ana over to her. “Count yourself lucky, girl. Gabriel has taken a liking to you rather quickly.” She bit her wrist with her fangs and offered it to Ana.

She drank eagerly, the warm thick liquid running down her throat and giving her life.

Miss Valenzia pushed her head away with two fingers and Ana gasped from the rush of the vitae. This was better than George, far more potent. She felt incredible.

“Thank you, Miss. You won’t regret this.”

“You defer to Gabriel from now on. He will also provide you with my blood.”

“Of course.” Ana made her way to Gabriel again and stood next to him.

He thanked Miss Valenzia and the two of them left. Back in the car again, Gabriel started laughing.

“Now that you are officially stuck with me for the rest of eternity, we’re going to celebrate. What do you want to eat? Restaurant visit is on me. I’m starving!”

The bewilderment on her face made him laugh even harder. “I- I don’t know. Pasta?”

“Pasta it is. We’re going to the best Italian restaurant in town.”

“I don’t understand,” she stammered. “Why don’t I fucking hate you?”

“I told you, you’ll learn to love me.” He placed two fingers under her chin, smirked and kissed her far differently from all the times she had come over and he had paid her some extra money on the side. “I’ll teach you.”

For some reason, she felt like he had planned all of this all along. He had broken her and he would now put the pieces back together how he wanted them. She would become his greatest treasure. And he would never let her go. She would need him. And she would come to love it. He would make sure of that.


End file.
